Social Skills Group Helps Kids with Autism

Graduate students in West Carolina University's communication sciences and disorders department are helping develop a social skills group for children with autism. They are working with Julie Ogletree, a speech-language pathologist to help children work on social interactions. The students work with children on a 4-week cycle, and activities are as varied as wall climbing, overcoming fear, and a poetry slam. The parents are involved as well and have worked on their own behaviors relating to how they communicate with their children.

The head of the department, Bill Ogletree, said, "What is really wonderful is that it is totally a win-win situation. My students participate in cutting-edge services, the kids receive these services and the families have great models to take home and into other settings."